“ad fontes!”
enjoyment or pleasure shared by a large number of people—coined by Samuel Johnson in his posthumous homage to David Garrick published in Prefaces, biographical and critical, to the works of the English poets (London, 1779)
Read Moresexual intercourse—Scotland, 1968—reduplication (with variation of the initial consonant and addition of the suffix ‘-y’) of the noun ‘rump’, denoting a person’s buttocks
Read Morea wine, or a vintage, produced in a year in which a notable comet appeared, and therefore thought to be of superior quality—UK—‘comet wine’ 1817—‘comet vintage’ 1819
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a raised band across a road, designed to make motorists reduce their speed—1961—based on the image of a policeman lying asleep in the middle of a road—in early use often with reference to Jamaica
Read More‘to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat’: to win a battle, contest, etc., when defeat seemed inevitable—‘to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory’: to be defeated in a battle, contest, etc., when victory seemed inevitable
Read Morea film which fails to achieve the commercial success that was expected—UK, 1986—from ‘flop’ (a failure) and ‘-buster’ in ‘blockbuster’ (a film which achieves great commercial success)
Read MoreUSA, 1854—the experience of life regarded as a means of instruction, in contrast to formal (higher) education—now often used with the implication that life experience is of greater benefit than formal education
Read MoreUSA, 1963—frequently in plural: a person on television who is shown merely speaking, as in a newscast or an interview
Read More1691—to expose the flaws in something such as a law, a policy, an argument or a belief—these flaws are likened to holes large enough to drive a coach and horses through them
Read Morea state of extreme nervousness or dread—UK, mid-19th century—‘blue’ is an intensifier of ‘funk’, denoting a state of extreme nervousness or dread
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word histories 